SMOOSH JUICE
Ask Ms. Meeple: How Can I Get Others to Speak Up? | BoardGameGeek News
by Greyfax
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Here is the discussion for this week:
Lately I’ve been getting tired of choosing the games every time, and I want other people to have a say in what we play, too, especially if they have a game they want to play that maybe I don’t even know about. We have a Discord server that I tried setting a request system up for, but that’s fizzled out. People just tend to use it to say if they’re coming or not.
How can I give other people some say in what we play while avoiding the awkward “I dunno, I’m good with whatever” without planning ahead? Maybe people with board game club experience can help? I also want people to know what their options are, but I don’t want to pull 60 games out every night.
Are you getting feedback from folks who are coming to your sessions regarding what’s being played? If not, I would not change anything about what you are doing. If they like you to choose the game, I can’t see why you wouldn’t want to. You seem to have a nice thing going, so is it really worth changing? Sometimes folks don’t want to have to make decisions and are quite happy to have something “good” put in front of them and they’ll play that.
The way you are doing it now is basically neutral, i.e., no one player is getting what they want at the expense of what another player wants. This means a lot less arguing and possible hurt/angry feelings. It’s important they have the ability to ask for what they want ā but they aren’t asking, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
I would, however, use BGG to upload your collection or at least the part of it that you feel could be appealing to your group. This way they could see what their choices are and decide whether that’s what they want to play.
Best,
Ms. Meeple (Jennifer Schlickbernd)
P.S. If there’s a situation in your board game group or at a meetup that you would like advice on, please send me a Geekmail with “Ms. Meeple” in the title.